TV deal gives viewers variety of NCAA choices

You control the flowThe new setup between CBS and Turner debuts today and allows viewers to see the game of their choice

DAVID BARRON, Copyright 2011 Houston Chronicle

Published
5:30 am CDT, Thursday, March 17, 2011

As CBS and Turner Sports begin their first full day of NCAA Tournament coverage, they want fans to channel surf at will.

In fact, they insist on it.

CBS and Turner, who will pay the NCAA about $10.8 billion over the next 14 years for NCAA Tournament rights, for the first time will show games on four networks — Turner's TBS, TNT and truTV and, in Houston, CBS affiliate KHOU (Channel 11) — as the 64-team field advances toward the Final Four at Reliant Stadium on April 2 and 4.

Gone are the days of a single game on a single CBS station in each broadcast window. CBS and Turner, in fact, have done everything to ensure freedom of choice for viewers short of issuing their own Emancipation Proclamation for basketball fans.

"The viewer will play the role that CBS used to play," said Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports. "He has the control in his hand. He doesn't have to rely on some CBS executive's decision on which game he is going to get. He can make the switch himself. We have empowered the viewer."

The CBS-Turner partnership debuted Tuesday night with two play-in games on Turner's truTV, which aired two more play-in games Wednesday night to assemble the field of 64 that begins play today.

Tuesday's North Carolina-Asheville vs. Arkansas-Little Rock and Clemson vs. UAB games delivered an average Nielsen rating of 0.8 with an average audience of 1.27 million viewers.

Tuesday's North Carolina-Asheville vs. Arkansas-Little Rock and Clemson vs. UAB games delivered an average Nielsen rating of 0.8 with an average audience of 1.27 million viewers.

Photo: Gregory Shamus, Getty Images

Photo: Gregory Shamus, Getty Images

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Tuesday's North Carolina-Asheville vs. Arkansas-Little Rock and Clemson vs. UAB games delivered an average Nielsen rating of 0.8 with an average audience of 1.27 million viewers.

Tuesday's North Carolina-Asheville vs. Arkansas-Little Rock and Clemson vs. UAB games delivered an average Nielsen rating of 0.8 with an average audience of 1.27 million viewers.

Photo: Gregory Shamus, Getty Images

TV deal gives viewers variety of NCAA choices

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Tuesday's North Carolina-Asheville vs. Arkansas-Little Rock and Clemson vs. UAB games delivered an average Nielsen rating of 0.8 with an average audience of 1.27 million viewers. Last year's single play-in game on ESPN had a 0.8 rating and 1.05 million total viewers.

Today's schedule begins with a 10 a.m. pregame show on truTV and ends with a postgame show at 11:30 p.m., and CBS and Turner hope to have as many people as possible watching games or studio chatter across that 14-hour stretch.

"You're seeing a real blend of talent and a blend of networks, with everyone trying to find a way to leverage all of our strengths and give the Tournament a new voice," said Christina Miller, Turner Sports' senior vice president. "We're trying to create one TV universe."

CBS and Turner Sports have collaborated on Winter Olympics in 1992, 1994 and 1998 and in recent PGA Championships. Their NCAA partnership, which runs through 2024, was born of their desire to keep the Tournament from ESPN. CBS retains an event it has aired since the early 1980s, and Turner gets a piece of one of the year's biggest sports properties for its cable/satellite networks and its digital service, which operates the broadband March Madness on Demand.

Viewers, in theory, benefit by having freedom of choice, cycling among as many as four games in progress at the same time.

Options will be displayed

CBS and Turner will try to steer neutral viewers toward the closest, most compelling game. Each network will have a strip across the top of the screen featuring logos of the other networks and the time and score for each game either in progress or about to start.

"I don't think you've ever seen a network saying we've got a great game on TNT, but there's a two-point game on CBS and send people there," said David Levy, president of Turner Sports. "We look at this as four unique distribution platforms. We will be telling people to go from one (channel) to another."

Unlike in past years, there will be no mid-game switches on any network. CBS, for example, will stick with today's West Virginia-Clemson game, even if it's a blowout, and viewers can switch to another game if they wish.

CBS and Turner officials met Sunday night to schedule the first weekend's games, and Mike Aresco, CBS Sports' executive vice president for programming, said several pre-Selection Sunday dry runs ensured a smooth process.

"The objectives didn't change," Aresco said. "You don't want geographic or competitive imbalance. You don't want three No. 1 seeds in the same window. And you want to have marquee names in prime time."

One goal for today and Friday, Aresco said, was to have strong games early to hook viewers for the rest of the day.

Today's first window, for example, features West Virginia and Louisville from the Big East, 2010 runner-up Butler and a cross-state Temple-Penn State game on TNT. Friday's openers include Texas-Oakland, which should draw well for CBS-owned stations in Dallas-Fort Worth and Detroit and affiliates such as KHOU (Channel 11), plus Notre Dame and 2006 Cinderella George Mason.

CBS should get a bump for WCBS in New York with a prime-time game featuring St. John's, and it gets North Carolina in prime time Friday.

As for channel surfing, TV executives hope Texas viewers will flip to TBS for Texas A&M-Florida State after Texas-Oakland on Friday.

Channel 11 would have had both the Longhorns and Aggies in past years, and station president Susan McEldoon said, "Certainly we would have loved to have both games. But we are thrilled to have Texas. Depending on how they progress, we hope they will both show up on CBS."

"It's a unique group with different personalities," said Jeff Behnke, the executive producer of Turner Sports. "It should be educational and entertaining."

That resulted in a few unscripted moments Wednesday, as when Barkley, referring to Anthony's suggestion that UNC-Asheville could challenge top-seeded Pittsburgh, said, "I need to call my financial people and get some cash on that one," and Davis closing the show with a borderline risqué comment that he probably would not have made on the more straight-laced CBS set.